Sylvain Sylvain / Million $ Reload / Sabrejets - live @ the Empire, Belfast, 13/07/13
There was a lot of excitement in our 'NYD' loving household when this rare 'Sylvain Sylvain's New York Dolls' Belfast gig was announced a few months ago.
We'd previously seen the Dolls live on five seperate occasions since their reformation at Meltdown in 2004 , we were there in London at the second of those two magical sellout shows. Sadly there was a couple of unfillable spaces on the stage that night, everyone knew there was no replacing Johnny or Jerry, but it was such an unbelievable buzz to actually see Johansen, Sylvain & Killer Kane (RIP) playing those songs together once again. I've loved the 'Dolls' for most of my life, but I never expected to ever see the three surviving members back sharing a stage again, even for that tragically short period of time.
My son '$teven VX' was only nine years old then, the many Dolls fans and the photographers present were all over him, shaking his hand and taking photo's of this very young kid giving it curled lip attitude while adorned in his little 'Johnny Thunders' shirt.
Since that glorious resurrection,and thanks to the law of diminishing returns, plus the many not alway's successful personel changes, it's been a bit of a bumpy ride for the 'New York Dolls' over the past few years. And true to form, confusion reigned right up until the last moment prior to this unexpected appearance of at least one original member.
Yeah! we all knew it was a 'Sylvain' solo show, but was it going to be an acoustic or electric performance. And who was going to actually be in the band, infact was there even going to be a band.
Youtube etc wasn't giving much away either, was Glen Matlock, James Stevenson or Earl Slick going to be there ?, I'd no idea! and it seemed neither did anyone else.
Then the name 'Gary Powell' was added to the posters, he was formerly a member of the 'Libertines' with the err! notorious Pete Doherty' , but more importantly he was also the drummer for the 'Dolls' during their 'Meltdown' stint. The Sabrejets & Million $ Reload had also been revealed as the eclectic support acts, so things were now starting to take shape.
And that was the last we heard for a while, until a couple of press pieces were posted online a few days shy of tonights show. Even then information was still thin on the ground, but we now knew that the band would be a trio and that 'Jerome Alexandre' ( The Skuzzies & author Nina Antonia's main squeeze) would be on bass, which was strange as he's normally a frontman / guitarist and not a natural bass player.
The night before (and of) the gig trouble had erupted locally with rioting breaking out in various locations. Movement around the outskirts of the city was restricted, then again thats nothing new for this place. But it was certain to have an effect on the number of people willing to take their chances for the sake of a night out in the city, even if it is in the company of a legendary 'New York Doll'.
And thats exactly how it worked out, attendance was reasonable but less than expected, which was disappointing.
Welcome to Belfast Syl!
Belfast's own and undoubtably one of the finest rockabilly outfits on the planet 'The Sabrejets' kicked the show off in true greaser style. Fronted by uber 'Dolls / Thunders' fan 'Brian Young' they tore the place up, machine gunning through a shorter than usual but seriously tight set, which included a new song 'Tenessee Flat Top Bop'.
I've seen 'The Sabrejets' live numerous times, but this was easily one of their best performances I've witnessed to date.
Next up we had a local highly regarded classic rock band called 'Million $ Reload', now these boys have been around for a while, they've released a couple of albums and played at the big festivals like 'Download' more than once in the past. Obviously well drilled, and not short of confidence and live experience under their collective bullet belts, this was a shape throwing strut in the park for them. Only thing was they weren't to everyone's taste and they recieved a bit of heckling from some of the non metal /rock fraternity in the audience (and their frontman didn't look pleased). But I'd seen M$R live before , I knew what to expect. They do sound a bit dated at times and don't stray too far from their generic path, but I liked them.
And so to the star of the show, who walked onto the stage unnoticed to a less than rapturous welcome. If I didn't know any better I'd swear that more than a few of the punters assembled here tonight didn't even know what 'Sylvain' looked like these days.
Early on it was becoming clear from the off that the band were going to have to work hard to win a possibly unenlightened but curious section of this crowd over, unlike the easy ride they admitted they'd had down in Dublin in a smaller venue the night before.
They immediately went for it rocking and brash with the Peter Gunn alike riffing of' The Cops Are Coming' followed by the 'Heartbreakers' favourite 'I Wanna Be Loved By You'. But Syl's constant early attempts at getting some audience participation going was failing at this point, and dragging out some of the classic tunes like 'Pills' (and later 'Jet Boy') to extreme length's clearly wasn't going to be the way to go either.
'Teenage News' was fantastic, and my highlight of the night. At last the crowd were getting over their apparent shyness and had moved forward towards the stage, the band were now getting into their groove and were clearly winning over the previously reluctant to loosen up punters.
'Can't Put Your Arm's Around A Memory' dedicated to 'Johnny Thunders' was both a poignant reminder of the great man,and a heartfelt tribute to an old friend.
'Personality Crisis' & the encore 'Trash' brought the show to a rowdy and very satisfying conclusion.
After a short breather the band re-appeared, then went well beyond the call of duty and chatted and posed for pics with everyone who wanted a piece of them.
$teven and Syl nattered for a while, and he got to tell him his childhood 'Meltdown' story and about his own band 'VX'. Syl then became his Yoda and started dispensing his words of rock n'roll wisdom and band advice to his new young padawan, lol. $ loved talking to Sylvain, they got some pics together and then an autographed 'New York Dolls' photo was duly sorted for me, which I really appreciated.
All the previous uncertainty was now forgotten, and regardless of the fact that there had only been two full rehearsal sessions pre the tour commencing, the band in the finest rock n'roll tradition were tight but loose, it was a really good fun night.
One last word, take it from me "you'll have to go a long way to find a more approachable and fan friendly band than these guys".
Come back to Belfast soon!
Joe Donnelly Belfast 15.7.13. (all photos © J. Donnelly)
We'd previously seen the Dolls live on five seperate occasions since their reformation at Meltdown in 2004 , we were there in London at the second of those two magical sellout shows. Sadly there was a couple of unfillable spaces on the stage that night, everyone knew there was no replacing Johnny or Jerry, but it was such an unbelievable buzz to actually see Johansen, Sylvain & Killer Kane (RIP) playing those songs together once again. I've loved the 'Dolls' for most of my life, but I never expected to ever see the three surviving members back sharing a stage again, even for that tragically short period of time.
My son '$teven VX' was only nine years old then, the many Dolls fans and the photographers present were all over him, shaking his hand and taking photo's of this very young kid giving it curled lip attitude while adorned in his little 'Johnny Thunders' shirt.
Since that glorious resurrection,and thanks to the law of diminishing returns, plus the many not alway's successful personel changes, it's been a bit of a bumpy ride for the 'New York Dolls' over the past few years. And true to form, confusion reigned right up until the last moment prior to this unexpected appearance of at least one original member.
Yeah! we all knew it was a 'Sylvain' solo show, but was it going to be an acoustic or electric performance. And who was going to actually be in the band, infact was there even going to be a band.
Youtube etc wasn't giving much away either, was Glen Matlock, James Stevenson or Earl Slick going to be there ?, I'd no idea! and it seemed neither did anyone else.
Then the name 'Gary Powell' was added to the posters, he was formerly a member of the 'Libertines' with the err! notorious Pete Doherty' , but more importantly he was also the drummer for the 'Dolls' during their 'Meltdown' stint. The Sabrejets & Million $ Reload had also been revealed as the eclectic support acts, so things were now starting to take shape.
And that was the last we heard for a while, until a couple of press pieces were posted online a few days shy of tonights show. Even then information was still thin on the ground, but we now knew that the band would be a trio and that 'Jerome Alexandre' ( The Skuzzies & author Nina Antonia's main squeeze) would be on bass, which was strange as he's normally a frontman / guitarist and not a natural bass player.
The night before (and of) the gig trouble had erupted locally with rioting breaking out in various locations. Movement around the outskirts of the city was restricted, then again thats nothing new for this place. But it was certain to have an effect on the number of people willing to take their chances for the sake of a night out in the city, even if it is in the company of a legendary 'New York Doll'.
And thats exactly how it worked out, attendance was reasonable but less than expected, which was disappointing.
Welcome to Belfast Syl!
Belfast's own and undoubtably one of the finest rockabilly outfits on the planet 'The Sabrejets' kicked the show off in true greaser style. Fronted by uber 'Dolls / Thunders' fan 'Brian Young' they tore the place up, machine gunning through a shorter than usual but seriously tight set, which included a new song 'Tenessee Flat Top Bop'.
I've seen 'The Sabrejets' live numerous times, but this was easily one of their best performances I've witnessed to date.
Next up we had a local highly regarded classic rock band called 'Million $ Reload', now these boys have been around for a while, they've released a couple of albums and played at the big festivals like 'Download' more than once in the past. Obviously well drilled, and not short of confidence and live experience under their collective bullet belts, this was a shape throwing strut in the park for them. Only thing was they weren't to everyone's taste and they recieved a bit of heckling from some of the non metal /rock fraternity in the audience (and their frontman didn't look pleased). But I'd seen M$R live before , I knew what to expect. They do sound a bit dated at times and don't stray too far from their generic path, but I liked them.
And so to the star of the show, who walked onto the stage unnoticed to a less than rapturous welcome. If I didn't know any better I'd swear that more than a few of the punters assembled here tonight didn't even know what 'Sylvain' looked like these days.
Early on it was becoming clear from the off that the band were going to have to work hard to win a possibly unenlightened but curious section of this crowd over, unlike the easy ride they admitted they'd had down in Dublin in a smaller venue the night before.
They immediately went for it rocking and brash with the Peter Gunn alike riffing of' The Cops Are Coming' followed by the 'Heartbreakers' favourite 'I Wanna Be Loved By You'. But Syl's constant early attempts at getting some audience participation going was failing at this point, and dragging out some of the classic tunes like 'Pills' (and later 'Jet Boy') to extreme length's clearly wasn't going to be the way to go either.
'Teenage News' was fantastic, and my highlight of the night. At last the crowd were getting over their apparent shyness and had moved forward towards the stage, the band were now getting into their groove and were clearly winning over the previously reluctant to loosen up punters.
'Can't Put Your Arm's Around A Memory' dedicated to 'Johnny Thunders' was both a poignant reminder of the great man,and a heartfelt tribute to an old friend.
'Personality Crisis' & the encore 'Trash' brought the show to a rowdy and very satisfying conclusion.
After a short breather the band re-appeared, then went well beyond the call of duty and chatted and posed for pics with everyone who wanted a piece of them.
$teven and Syl nattered for a while, and he got to tell him his childhood 'Meltdown' story and about his own band 'VX'. Syl then became his Yoda and started dispensing his words of rock n'roll wisdom and band advice to his new young padawan, lol. $ loved talking to Sylvain, they got some pics together and then an autographed 'New York Dolls' photo was duly sorted for me, which I really appreciated.
All the previous uncertainty was now forgotten, and regardless of the fact that there had only been two full rehearsal sessions pre the tour commencing, the band in the finest rock n'roll tradition were tight but loose, it was a really good fun night.
One last word, take it from me "you'll have to go a long way to find a more approachable and fan friendly band than these guys".
Come back to Belfast soon!
Joe Donnelly Belfast 15.7.13. (all photos © J. Donnelly)